Chasing Winter
by alfakyn-elf
Summary: Takes place just after the Thanos Snap in IW. Peter Quill has survived, and returned to Earth with Tony. Unable to just sit around, however, he returns to space to hunt Thanos down. With him is Nebula, Rocket, and a new face: James Barnes, known on Earth as the Winter Soldier. Will they be able to stop Thanos? ( Winterlord romance. )


**AN : thanks for reading! My girlfriend and I write winterlord on a regular basis, mostly through headcanon conversations, but this is my first attempt at writing out a story featuring their relationship. If you enjoy my work, please consider supporting me through a buying me a ko-fi ( if that link doesn't work let me know ! ). every cent helps!**

* * *

Earth was not as he remembered.

He could still feel Mantis' ashes on his tongue, brushing against his cheeks, her sorrow clinging to his skin. Somehow, he had known it was going to happen. _Something's wrong_. Her words echoed in his ears, tugged against his grief, beckoned to swallow him whole. One by one, his friends had disappeared around him. He still hadn't had proper time to mourn Gamora. His heart ached. It hadn't ached this much since his mother had died. Grief was not something you made friends with, and yet it had made itself a home within his heart and squeezed, refusing to let up.

And now? Now he found himself on his own ship, with no one but Stark and Nebula for company. It had been terrifying, at first. The ship was in disarray, and Rocket was not here to make repairs. They made do though, with Stark's skill and Quill's knowledge of alien tech. He had survived on his own all those years, after all. There wasn't lack in fighting, and there were several times after a heated argument when Quill shut himself in the cockpit, _Queen_ blaring out of the speakers with such volume that he was almost certain it was going to piss off the others. Good.

They had finally gotten the Universal Neural Teleportation Network back online, arrived at the jump point, and now Peter found himself staring down at a planet he had spent three decades avoiding. There was a strange feeling in his stomach, a panicked press against his chest. _Run. There is nothing for you there. Everyone you knew on Earth was dead._ But they had a job to do, and he had a bitter hope that maybe, just _maybe_, Rocket and Groot had found themselves spared of the Snap.

"You're welcome for getting us home." He spoke in an attempt to poke, to jest, to taunt, but Tony Stark did not take the bait. He was now choosing to ignore him, and Peter found himself angered by it. He was angry about a lot of things these days. It pooled in the bowels of his belly, curled possessively around his bones. He only had one person to be angry with, but Thanos was nowhere to be found. "I said-"

"Hey why don't you do us all a favor and shut it? I'm thinking."

Peter had opened his mouth to protest, but there wasn't time for retorts. They were landing (Peter had reluctantly followed Tony's instructions on direction) and Peter was too focused on the painful twist in his gut to answer.

"_Finally_. Hey F.R.I.D.A.Y., how bad is it out there?" Tony was talking to himself and Peter didn't rightly care. He was too busy looking out, memories of that fateful day in the field washing over him, making him dizzy. He felt sick, his tongue heavy and coated in what felt like metal.

_Dun, dun, dun. Another one bites the dust. _Peter found himself laughing. Nebula had been quiet, as always, but now she was staring at him. He could never tell what she was feeling because her expression simply never changed. She scared the shit out of him.

"Hey man don't look at me like that. Could really use without the judgement right now."

"Then stop acting like an idiot."

Her words barely brushed the surface; he had heard worse from ex girlfriends.

"If you two have finished flirting over there, we've got other things to worry about." As much as Peter wanted to throw something at Tony, he was right. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but he was right. Tony had let them to what looked to be a compound of sorts. It already looked more technologically advanced than the Earth that Peter remembered, but he let none of his insecurities show. Stark wouldn't let him hear the end of it if he did.

"So this is Earth, huh?" It was . . . _different_ than Peter remembered. Of course, his mother had been raising him herself when he was a child. They hadn't had the money to take family trips, even with his grandparent's support, so Peter's memory of Earth was confined to the open fields of Missouri and the small town of his childhood.

He was ignored once again. Several had come out of the compound to greet Tony, his warm welcome only making the weight on Peter's own heart even heavier. He longed to return to the sky, where it was familiar and safe. He longed to have his family back. He could still hear Drax's voice behind him, housing uncharacteristic panic. _Quill_?

"Knew you were too stubborn to die, orphan boy." The familiar voice shook him from his moping, head turned to see furry head separating himself from the crowd. Any other time and he would have been angry at the nickname, but all he could feel was relief. Rocket was alive.

"Hi my name is Rocket and I like to be a total A-hole." His voice lacked the usual mock to its tone though, and he couldn't help the smile that broke through. He and Rocket never got along, but he couldn't think of a time when he had been so relieved to see him. "Groot?" His voice went quiet.

A slight shake of Rocket's head, and Peter's grief grew heavier.

"So it happened then? It really happened?"

"Use that noggin' of yours Quill. You already know the answer to that question." Peter found himself falling to his knees, and much to his surprise, Rocket bolted forward, curling himself against Peter in a brief hug. "You tell anyone about this, I'll break your zune."

"Shuddup man and enjoy the moment." But then he was pulling away, turning to the others, finding no familiarity in their unfamiliar faces. Stark was pressing heavily against a woman, and the way they leaned intimately into each other Peter could tell that they had history. He noticed with shocking clarity that the only and only _Captain America _stood before him, talking to Tony, and Peter wondered fleetingly what he would think if he knew Peter had his entire comic collection stashed away on his ship alongside an action figure and several of his trading cards. Captain America had been his childhood hero when he was younger. A man who sacrificed everything to save his country. Peter had been away from Earth for so long, he hadn't known Steve Rogers had woken up from the ice. In that moment, Peter hated himself for staying away from Earth all those years. How much had changed? How much had he missed out on? He had been frightened for so long, he hadn't wanted to see Earth and its changes. He had been so afraid of stepping back on its soil when there wasn't a Meredith Quill alive on it somewhere.

"Hey what's up guys. I'm _Captain _Peter Quill. Super important space man." _Legendary outlaw_. He left the last one out as he approached, his chest puffing out as he made himself to be someone of great importance. "I saved the galaxy _twice_." Everyone looked at him, but all were too grief stricken to comment. Everyone had lost someone today. There wasn't even a quip from Tony.

He would not think about how his lack of control had granted Thanos the chance to best them, how it had been _his _fault Thanos had gotten away with the stoned and managed his skewed viewpoint of salvation. If he thought about it for even a moment, he would be lost. No, there had to be a way to fix this. There always was. _It's all your fault, man. They have to grieve because of you._

"Now that Thanos has won, he won't be expecting retaliation. So how do we fuck this guys world?"

"We'll have to find him first, and we have no way of doing that." It was Steve that spoke, and when Peter looked at him, there was a grim sort of realization that he was _right_. Next to him stood a man, sullen and haunted, his hair drawn back in a quickly done bun, eyes full of ghosts. One arm naught but metal, and Peter wondered fleetingly of the story there.

"Preeeetty sure Stark was able to get us back home, so he should be able to figure out a way to find Thanos. In the meantime, Nebula, Rocket, and I will head back to space. Surely someone has heard of where he might be." He ignored Tony's comment about complimenting him.

"I want to go with you." It was the man with the metal arm that spoke first, and all eyes turned to him. A small "_Buck_" uttered from Steve's lips, and the man shook his head ever so slightly.

Peter shrugged. "Space's brutal, man. Think you can handle it?" And when the man nodded, Peter mirrored him. "Alright. Don't matter to me. Could always use more help. We'll stay in touch. I'll let you know if we find anything. Metal man, go get your shit. We're leaving soon." Not fast enough. It felt like this place was crawling under Peter's skin, and he felt restless, like he needed to bolt.

"Wait - are we sure this is the course of action we should take. Shouldn't we talk about this?" Steve spoke again, and Peter stared at him. He was obviously their leader, the one they stood behind. He was not the Captain America Peter remembered: his beard was grown out, and there was obvious trauma behind his expression. He looked more rogue than the face of America. While it annoyed Peter, who wanted nothing more than to put Earth behind him, he could understand the hesitation.

"Can't just sit around and do nothin' man. At least I can't. You can do whatever the hell you want. Eat some skittles for me. Space doesn't got skittles. But I'm goin' out there to find that purple fucker, and I'm gonna make him fix this. You're either with that idea, or you can try somethin' else." He shrugged, feigning nonchalance. He had been living by his own rules for a long time - since he left Yondu and the Ravagers. He wasn't about to start taking orders again; not even from Captain America himself.

"Come inside, at least. We've got food. Let's eat, talk, and then we'll plan accordingly."

When Peter looked at Steve, there was a fierce sort of determination there, the same determination to fix this that Peter had. Peter could respect that, so he agreed.

"Alright, but there better be some sandwiches."

* * *

**AN: remember to review if you feel so inclined - I enjoy constructive criticism very much. Also remember that if you're enjoying my work, to please buy me a ko-fi through the link about. I'd appreciate it loads.**


End file.
